


in vino veritas

by vicbartons



Category: Emmerdale
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Drunkenness, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-01
Updated: 2017-07-01
Packaged: 2018-11-21 22:34:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,054
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11367012
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vicbartons/pseuds/vicbartons
Summary: they say alcohol loosens the tongue and in aaron´s case it really does. in all the best and worst ways.





	in vino veritas

**Author's Note:**

> prompt: "you´ve been drinking tonight, haven´t you?"

It´s the sound of metal scratching against wood over and over again that wakes Robert up.

He blinks a few times, feeling slightly disoriented for a minute, until he realises that he´s not in bed, but still curled up on the armchair in their living room. Feet tucked under himself and cuddling with a throw pillow. He must have falllen asleep waiting up for Aaron; somewhere between reruns of Doctor Who and whatever late-night teleshopping nonesense is occuping the screen now, the low, monotonous voice of its presenter filling the room.

As he turns towards their front door, where he assumes the headache-inducing noise is coming from, he can feel a light crick in his neck. Someday, Robert is going to admit to himself that he is too old to sleep on anything other than a proper matress. He lets out a small groan and runs a hand over his face to rub the sleep from his eyes. In hopes of adjusting to the dark room around him, only illuminated by the dim light of the television, he blinks a few times, but he can´t make out anything more than a moving shadow on the other side of the pane of glass in the door to their flat.

Suddenly, the scratching stops, but it doesn´t take long for it to be replaced by a slurred, explative-laced tirade.

Robert smiles to himself.

Aaron then. And he is definitely drunk. Not that Robert had expected anything else, with him being out on his stag do.

The scratching starts off again, a clear sign that Aaron´s key still hasn´t found its way into the key-hole. Begrudgingly, Robert pushes himself out of the armchair and stumbles towards the door, careful not to stub his toe on their living room table or to fall over whatever clobber Liv has undoubtedly managed to scatter across their floor over the course of the day. 

When he finally lets Aaron in, he drunkenly flounders forwards and into him, clearly not having expected the door to suddenly give. 

“Oi! Careful, you,“ Robert catches him in his arms, his hands finding their way under his husband's armpits to pull him upright. 

“´obert,“ Aaron mumbles, and a bright smile spreads across his face as soon as his eyes manage to focus on him.

He looks gorgeous like this; red cheeks, wide eyes and his hair sligthly ruffled, no sign of his usual scowl. “I´ve got ya,“ Robert reassures and he can´t help the grin that tugs at his own lips at the sight of his husband. No matter how long he lives, Robert is fairly certain that he will never tire of seeing Aaron smile. 

“You´ve been drinking tonight, haven´t you?“ he teases. 

“Funny,“ Aaron huffs a laugh, as he tries to steady himself by tightly holding onto Robert´s shoulders,“you´re funny.” His index finger taps against Robert´s chest a few times, before he´s grabbing Robert´s jumper to pull him close, until their noses are touching. “Missed ya,“ he whispers.

“You too,” Aaron´s nose scrunches up adorably at the admission, and god, if it weren´t for his drunkenness and the light stench of alcohol and cigarette smoke sticking to his hoodie, Robert would kiss him right now. 

“Didn´t tell ´em that… how funny y´are,“ Aaron says, but Robert is too focused on trying to drag his husband towards their bedroom to question it. 

It doesn´t take long for him to realise that there is absolutely no way he´s getting Aaron up the spiral staricase and into bed in this state, at the very least not without waking up Liv. Not for the first time since their move, Robert curses himself for having insisted on the damn thing, against Ronnie´s advice. (Obviously, he would never admit that to anyone. He wasn´t about to let the likes of Zak Dingle come into his home and critizise his sense of interior design, thanks very much.)

“Sofa it is then,“ he mutters under his breath, more to himself than to Aaron. “You need to help me out a bit here, Aaron.” Robert is trying to get them to the sofa somehow, Aaron´s arms around his shoulder. He tugs him in at the hip, but Aaron feels like a bag of concrete next to him, putting his full weight on Robert and practically letting himself be dragged across the room, “Come on.“

“Should ´ave told ´em…“

“Told who what?“ Robert asks, but Aaron doesn´t seem to notice and carries on with his ramblings instead.

“Said I was a right idiot for marrying ya again,“ Aaron shakes his head at that, as if the notion of him not agreeing to finally make this marriage legal is utterly ridiculous to him, but Robert grimaces. 

Eventhough him and the Dingles are back to a somewhat cordial relationship, most of them having reluctantly accepted that Aaron wasn´t going to budge on his decision to stick with Robert, they still are far from his biggest fans. Nowadays, Robert only has to endure the odd more or less well-meaning jib, whenever he runs into one of Aaron´s family members. Though given that practically half the village is related to his husband in one way or another, it still happens far more often than Robert would like. 

He takes every dig in stride though, feeling like that is the least he deserves considering his monumental fuck-up. 

Nevertheless, he should have known that they would use their chance of getting Aaron on his own to launch one last proper intervention. As they should. It´s not like Robert himself doesn´t spent every walking hour of every day wondering what on earth he´s done right in life for Aaron to give him yet another chance, after everthing. 

The answer is probably “nothing”. This is all Aaron. Fiercly loyal and with a heart of gold when it comes to the people he loves. And for some inexplicable reason, Robert is one of the few people lucky enough to be loved by Aaron Dingle. Deep down, he is still unsure if his husband wouldn´t be better off without him, no matter how many times Aaron tries to convince him of the opposite, but if Robert has learned anything over the past year, it´s that as much as he´s trying to change for the better, he is still far too selfish to not hold on as tightly as he can and take every chance he´s offered when it comes to Aaron.

"Ya know,“ Aaron continues, tilting his head to the side, an apologetic look on his face, “with Rebecca and the lying and the shirts.“

Robert knows it´s coming, but her name still feels like a punch to the gut and he can´t help but flinch at the sound of it. No matter how good things are right now, he will never forgive himself for what happened with Rebecca and the way he-  

"My shirts?“ Suddenly, there´s a quizzical look on his face.

Aaron gives him a small nod. “Look like a posh twat, Cain said,“ Robert opens his mouth at that, ready to argue, but then he closes it shut again without having uttered a word. With him bone-tired and Aaron wasted, it doesn´t really seem the time to point out that Cain Dingle, who - if Robert remembers correctly - spent years with a haircut that made him look like a 90´s grunge band reject, should be the last person to comment on anyone else´s appearance.

"But I told ´em where to shove it,“ Aaron says proudly, when they finally reach the sofa.

"Did you now?“ Robert´s lips quirk up in a smile as he lets Aaron lie down and starts to loosen his shoe laces to pull off his boots. His husband, oblivious to his efforts thanks to god knows how many pints, being no help at all in the process.

“Defended your ´onor, like a proper husband.“ 

Robert huffs, “Course you did,“ he says and takes the blanket that´s purched over the edge of their sofa to tug Aaron in.

He´s hovering right over him, pulling the blanket over his husband´s shoulders, when Aaron´s hand finds its way into his hair and he begins to speak again, soft and full of adoration. "Told ´em that you´re gorgeous and clever,“ Robert´s cheeks flush slightly red at that. It´s not like he doesn´t know that Aaron loves him, but hearing small confirmations like these out loud still sends shivers down his spine.

Aaron let´s his fingers run down Robert´s face until they cup his chin and continues, “Best thing that´s ever happened to me, you.“ He´s practically beaming at him now, his voice low and raspy from fatigue and alcohol. “Not my fault that they don´t know how soft and all y´are, really, but I do,“ his thumb caresses Robert´s cheek, “I know.“

The words rush over him like a wave of affection, leaving him with that comfortable, warm feeling of home in his stomach that only Aaron ever makes him feel. Like in this moment, he is exactly where he's supposed to be. “Good. You´re the only one who needs to know, right?” He kisses Aaron´s cheek lightly, a smile on his lips, “Got a reputation to uphold and all.”

“And ya can do that thing with your tongue,“ Robert pulls away a bit and shakes his head, eyes wide, hoping that Aaron isn´t talking about what he thinks he is talking about, “that thing, on the kitchen counter.“ His hand runs down his face to muffle an embarassed moan. Of course he couldn´t be that lucky.

“Christ Aaron, they didn´t need to know about that, did they?“ Robert could only hope that the rest of the party had come home in as much of a state as Aaron. Otherwise, they´d probably both have to spent the next few weeks hiding out at home, avoiding Adam and most of the Dingles at all costs.

“Should do that again,“ Aaron tries but fails to quirk his eyebrows at Robert as his heavy eyes slowly fall shut, his whole body desperate for sleep.

“Yeah right,“ Robert whispers warmly, chuckling, “No chance of that happening until you´ve sobered up.“

“Hmpf."

Robert leaves him on the sofa, while he goes to get Aaron a glass of water and the aspirin that he´s certainly going to need by the time he wakes up. From the kitchen, out of the corner of his eye, he can see Aaron akwardly shuffling around on the sofa. He sends most of their cushions flying to the ground, sleepily trying to make himself comfortable.

Robert returns, finally switches off the tv and puts the glass and the tablet down on their coffee table. “Night”, he whispers, before placing a kiss on Aaron´s forhead while tugging the blanket tightly around him again, ready to leave him be for the night.

“Stay ´ere,“ Aaron mumbles. He reaches out to grab Robert´s hand, but misses in his drunken haze. Instead, he just lets it hover in the air between them.

Robert turns back towards him and laces their fingers together.

He knows that his back isn´t going to thank him for this come morning. But then again, sleeping in their bed without his husband next to him won´t make for a good night´s sleep either – he learned that the hard way, back during Aaron´s stint in prison – and Robert would take a bit of back pain over not having Aaron softly snorring on his shoulder while he holds him close any day.

So he lies down beside his husband. He tries to make both of them fit on their sofa properly by pulling Aaron on top of him, though his feet still end up dangling over the edge.

“´ove ya,“ Aaron hums against his skin, before pressing a sloppy kiss to Robert´s jaw. Robert leans in and lets his cheek rest against Aaron´s hair, as his eyes slowly close shut.

“Love you,too.“

**Author's Note:**

> find me on tumblr: [@vicbartons](http://www.vicbartons.tumblr.com)


End file.
